Haiti to hold new presidential vote after fraud claims

PORT-AU-PRINCE: After repeatedly postponing the run-off of last fall's disputed presidential election, Haiti will now re-run the vote in October, the country's interim leader has said.
Interim president Jocelerme Privert — whose term is scheduled to end mid-June — announced the Oct 9 balloting date at a regional summit of Caribbean countries gathered in Havana, according to an online report Saturday by Le Nouvelliste.
Just days before, an independent commission recommended cancelling last October's first-round results, saying fraud had marred the vote.
Haiti has been in deep political crisis since its first postponement in December, when a run-off between then-president Michel Martelly's favoured candidate Jovenel Moise and opposition flag-bearer Jude Celestin was called off amid violence and allegations of fraud in the first round.
The opposition condemned the first voting round on Oct 25 as an "electoral coup" in favour of Moise, who collected 32.76% of the vote against Celestin's 25.29%.
The long-delayed crippled electoral process in Haiti continues to hinder the island nation from rebuilding after the 2010 earthquake that killed 220,000 people.
The electoral census has not been updated since that catastrophe, and the deceased remain on the voter registration list, enabling voter fraud.
After the Martelly's departure, Parliament elected Privert as interim president, with a mandate to organize elections.
The Haitian government has yet to propose a solution to manage the vacuum of power that could transpire after the interim president's term ends June 14.
Completely reorganizing the ballot would require a much bigger budget than the poorest country in the Americas can possibly afford alone.
International donors mostly financed the aborted elections in 2015, to the tune of US$100 million (RM410.15 million). Its low 25% turnout makes financing the next election critical. — AFP